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Hello everyone! It has been awhile since I put something up here on ICE. Boss man has me doing so much and I am extremely busy. Wait till later when I get business cards, t-shirts, and even promotional-exclusive wear done. Now what do I mean when I say promotional-exclusive wear? Think about an ICE t-shirt made promoting one of our artists. Think about a mug promoting Practical Futilities. Think about a cap promoting Aziena Zen. Think about a pair of shorts promoting Console Alliance. Things like that. Also, the other reason I haven’t been blogging as much was my pay as in I wasn’t getting my pay through. Something went wrong with my account but that has been fixed. If I have everything going my way, you – the readers, the supporters, the fans which we here at ICE affectionately call our Icicles – will be getting a special article AND a media-type review every day of the work week. Meaning a guaranteed article and review for each day, Monday through Friday, brought to you by The Alpha Jan. Well let’s hope I get so much to keep you all interested since most of our writers are M.I.A. or P.O.S. (Prisoners of School).
On Saturday, August 1st of 2009, I had the honor of attending The Anime Festival Orlando 10. It seems that this year was the decade year of a lot of conventions and shows. Now this festival was actually a big improvement from the fail-con known as JACON 10: Endgame. I guess JACON wasn’t so big because it was going to be the last JACON ever. The people behind the convention were moving on to different things, having different ideas, and trying out new perspectives. Alas, JACON was no longer a top priority to those who ran the convention. Even though JACON was a fail-con, I had a lot of fun. I never had been to a JACON before so being able to attend at least one before they close their doors forever was all-inspiring and fun. Not to mention, this is the only convention/show/festival/etc. that both my boss Patrick and his wife Heather have attended so far. Now the AFO 10 was ten times more awesome and there were just so many people all into anime, video games, Japanese art, and so much more. I took my baby step-sister along for the ride since she loves anime even though she is a big Yaoi fanatic. (Yaoi is gay anime and manga if you didn’t know!) Once we bought are tickets, she disappeared into the crowd and I didn’t see her for four hours. I am kind of surprised at that because this festival was held in a very big hotel but it is no convention center. How she eluded me for almost four hours is amazing.
You know the first thing I had to do was go straight to all the vendors and artists because those are the people and groups ICE loves to come in contact with. Correction: that is the type of people that I, The Alpha Jan, seem to like to come into contact with. I like working for independent artists when they are trying their hardest working for themselves. I have to say I met some old friends. First, I got to see Jeannie again. Now if you don’t know who she is, she is one half of the dynamic duo behind the awesome company, Practical Futilities. They make masks, purses, jewelry, and everything in for your happy, happy, joy, joy life! I also got to meet the other half of the dynamic duo, Corey who is super-awesome too! What made hanging out with Jeannie the best was I got to pose with her showing of the emoticons, which were a headpiece you wore shaped as either the teardrop or the cross-vein you see in anime meaning either embarrassment or super-angry kamehameha rage! Check out the pictures of both of us looking goofy but seriously though, we RAWKED the angry side. It was like Jeanne wanted to punch you in the face and I was about to power up. You ever seen Dragonball Z when Goku or Vegeta are powering up? It’s not hard to spot because half of the episodes in Dragonball Z are of the characters powering up. They look like they are trying to take the biggest number two in the world. That is how I looked. Anyways, check if you are interested in leather masks, reversible purses, emoticons, and lace accessories, contact Practical Futilities through their Myspace page at www.myspace.com/practicalfutilities or email them at practicalfutilities@yahoo.com. Let them know that The Alpha Jan at ICE referred you and you might get a “Hey! I know him!”.
I got to meet another awesome convention friend of mine. Actually, she was also a reason why the fail-con known as JACON was actually worth my while. Her name is Emily Richards but she is the owner, spokeswoman, creator, and super-gorgeous human interactions representative of Aziena Zen. I can go as far to say she is Aziena Zen. Sort of like how you would say *NAME BALEETED* is The Alpha Jan. It was really awesome hanging with Emily since she had brand new jewelry to show off. I being the camera whore that I am had to rock it out with her wearing one of her super-awesome hair clips. If my eyebrow piercing was still intact, I’d probably have her put a cupcake or a piece of sushi through my eyebrow. Why I say that is because the charms she usually makes are usually cupcakes and sushi which is super-awesome. We spent some time talking about life and she was so happy about her promotional spot in my article of the fail-con JACON 10: Endgame at ICE. I guess she really didn’t expect me to put in an article about her little company in the midst of the chaos of otaku fanatics, glompers, and fan funk which is a combination of Bok Chou and ass. Speaking of fan funk, I got in trouble once at a previous Megacon for selling scented deodorizing sprays to people. I called myself the “Funkbuster”. Catchy isn’t it? Oh! I almost forgot to let you Icicles know about Emily’s new item for sale. She is making cute little birdies you can tie to your hands. You know those birdies right? The ones you see animated in Disney Classics? Those birdies! If you are interested in a necklace, or a bracelet, or one of those cute little birdies, hit up Emily Richards at her Myspace page at www.myspace.com/azienazen and don’t forget to let her know The Alpha Jan at ICE sent you!
Now I get to introduce you to the new vendors! First off, I want to say this girl also knows Emily, Jeannie, and Cory. The convention/show/festival family is kind of a tight circuit and eventually, everyone knows everyone. This girl’s company makes some of the coolest looking purses I have seen. Now it’s kind of different hearing that from a dude, especially since I don’t strut around with a man bag holding man lipstick with some manpons or anything like that. I just like ingenuity and respect artistic creativity. This girl made purses out of cigar boxes! HOW FREAKIN’ AWESOME IS THAT! I thought the cigar box purse with the five fans was the coolest looking one out of them all. Seriously though, I never would have thought of making a purse out of a cigar box because 1.) Not my expertise and 2.) I think of the old-age stench of nicotine passing off as Cuban when it is really Honduran along with slave labor and illegal immigration when it comes to empty cigar boxes. Anyways, the owner and artist of the cigar box purses is Roo Klaers and she has a special message for you. Actually this was written on the back of her business card.
When people compliment you on your purse and they will…have no fear, no look-alikes here. Refer them my way and make their day
Now that is catchy! Anyways, the company that Roo Klaers both owns and works for is called Roobiesoup Inc. I am thinking Inc. stands for Incorporated but I could be wrong. Isn’t a corporation a business owned by stockowners? Anyways, if you want a super-hot cigar box purse, feel free to contact Roo Klaers at www.roobiesoup.etsy.com or give her a call at (321) 947-0025. Fax number is (321) 445-5529. Don’t forget to let her know that The Alpha Jan of ICE referred you to her! (Insert Grinning Face HERE!)
There are two other vendors I would like to promote very quickly before I got to my final vendor and explaining the rest of the festival. First is Star Masayune. Check out her website at http://starinmypocket.net and http://starmasayume.deviantart.com. And second, is The Five Wits. They make pottery, art, t-shirts, and wizzats yo! Check out their website at www.thefivewits.net. Reason why I am not doing such a big promotion is because they didn’t’ talk to me much due to being “too busy”. Oh well. Maybe next time, we will have more than a quick hey and ho. Maybe we will have a light chat. Now the final vendor I want to promote to you all is for ALL THE GAMERZ! That’s right! ALL THE GAMERZ! This company is called Glitchgear and they want you to wear the games. I bought two of their shirts and they are awesome. I got the old-school shirt and the whoopin’ stick shirt. AWESOME yo! Trust me, just go to their website at www.glitchgear.com and see their whole selection of gaming shirts. Why if you register at their website, you also register to win free glitch t-shirts and stickers. They too have a message for all of you gamerz yo!
Glitch gaming apparel is the premier brand for video game t-shirts developed for gamerz by gamerz. Glitch is determined to produce the coolest gamer tees on the planet. Glitch aims to break boundaries by creating a fusion between the gaming and apparel industries like never before. Bringing gamerz the coolest t-shirts from the games that gave us all thumb blisters and hand cramps!
The rest of the festival was really good. I went to some of the panels including the panel on Photoshop tactics. However, if you’re into Macromedia Flash, Photoshop is nothing. Besides, Illustrator does a better job than Photoshop when it comes to making the comic books and such. I also competed in some games in the gaming room. I would have so owned everyone in Tatsunoku vs. Capcom if I had the classic controller. I survived the time limit though against some fan who’s been sitting in the same chair playing the game for who knows how long. I also went to the talent show which was really entertaining. The singers were really good. I even got to see Ariel and Jasmine, the two Disney princesses sing the song “Part of Your World”. That made me cry from the inside. Finally, there is of course all of the pictures I took. Check them out by following the link below to the photo album of me, The Alpha Jan, attending AFO 10.
The Alpha Jan at AFO 10
Well that is it for now! The next convention/show/festival I am planning on attending will be the Tampa Comic-Con in November 7th of 2009. I cannot wait to see The Superhuman Experiment and Amanda Stevens again. You are what you believe to be, either it be good or bad, right or wrong, what you want or what you hate. It isn’t our abilities that make us, it is our choices. Oh! Sorry! Went into [X] mode for a moment. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this article of AFO 10. Hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
W.W.A.D. (What Would Aslan Do?)
Alpha OUT!
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